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Pirates lose another starter

Baseball Notebook

Posted: Thursday, April 05, 2001

By Associated Press

CINCINNATI -- The Pittsburgh Pirates, already missing three starters because of injury, lost left-hander Terry Mulholland to a sprained knee during the fourth inning of a game against the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night.

Mulholland landed awkwardly on his left leg during his follow-through on a pitch to Chris Reitsma. He hobbled around on the side of the mound for a few seconds, bringing manager Lloyd McClendon and an assistant trainer onto the field.

Mulholland tried one warmup pitch, but couldn't put any weight on the leg. He put his head down and walked off the field angrily, snatching his black warmup jacket off the bench before heading for the clubhouse.

The injury was diagnosed as a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. There was no indication how long Mulholland would be sidelined by the injury, which typically causes a pitcher to miss several starts.

McClendon, a rookie manager, lost three-fifths of his starting rotation to injuries during spring training. Projected opening day starter Kris Benson and the last two opening day starters, Francisco Cordova and Jason Schmidt, are out at least until early May.

Indians sellout streak ends at 455

CLEVELAND -- There was a baseball rarity at Jacobs Field on Wednesday night -- empty seats.

For the first time in 456 games, the Cleveland Indians didn't play in front of a sellout crowd at the Jake as the longest consecutive sellout streak in major league history ended at 455 games.

It had been 2,122 days since the Indians last non-sellout when a crowd of 36,363 fans watched the Indians beat the Detroit Tigers 3-2 on June 7, 1995.

The sellout streak began five days later against the Baltimore Orioles and came to a halt Wednesday night as only 32,763 turned out for the season's second home game against the Chicago White Sox.

During the streak, the Indians drew 19,324,248 fans to the Jake.

Power failure delays Red Sox-Orioles game

BALTIMORE -- The start of Tuesday's game between the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles was delayed 43 minutes because of a power outage at Camden Yards.

The outage was caused by a problem in a Baltimore Gas & Electric feeder line that services the stadium, said Orioles spokesman Bill Stetka.

The outage occurred about 90 minutes before the scheduled 7:05 p.m. start and left the stadium's scoreboards and JumboTron message board inoperable.

BGE workers switched power to the ballpark to an alternate line, Stetka said, and were still investigating why an automatic transfer to an alternate line did not occur.

At 7:10 p.m., the stereo system and a portion of the JumboTron became operational. Within 20 minutes, power was restored to the scoreboards and stereo system and the light banks were operational.

Clemens expects to push back with sore wrist

NEW YORK -- Roger Clemens expects to have his next start for the New York Yankees pushed back a day because of a sore right wrist, the result of being hit by a sharp comebacker on opening day.

Clemens' pitching hand was bandaged, and his wrist and forearm were stiff and discolored before Wednesday night's game against Kansas City.

''You can still see the seams, a ball mark,'' he said. ''Typical for when you get hit.''

Clemens is now listed to start Sunday against Toronto, rather than Saturday. Orlando Hernandez is expected to face the Blue Jays in Clemens' original spot.

''We'll take a day to test it,'' Clemens said.

Clemens was struck by Carlos Febles' sharp grounder to start the eighth inning in Monday's 7-3 victory. He threw out Febles, and stayed in the game.

Clemens did not seem overly concerned by the injury. He went through his usual rigorous workout, conditioning his legs, and planned to get heat and ice treatment later for fluid that had drained into his wrist.

He said no X-rays were taken.

After earning his 261st career victory, Clemens went home to Houston to visit his ailing mother, Bess. She recently got out of the intensive care unit of a hospital, where she was being treated for emphysema.

This article published in the Athens Daily News on Thursday, April 5, 2001.